[313] Government in the Southern States than there is now in Ohio.
Harmony between the laborers and the holders of property, which is essential to meet immediate wants and settle society that has been so much disturbed at the South, may, however, be brought about in process of time without much real progress. There is a fundamental prejudice, a false theory as really existing as that in feudal times of the nobles against the masses of the common people; it is that the negroes were never intended by nature for education. ‘If you educate them,’ they say, ‘it will upset them, unfit them for the duties imposed upon them, rob us of our position and consideration among them. Educate them, and you will not only render them discontented laborers, but they will get into all sorts of political jars and excitements, they will become a prey to all the sophistries and isms of New England, and bad politicians will guide them to our detriment. In brief, all the beautiful natural order that God has imposed, making us superior, wise, and provident, and them confiding, childlike, and dependent, will be destroyed as much as the peace of Eden was by allowing Eve to eat of the tree of knowledge. Fix it so that we can be the mind and they the obedient muscle, and all will be well, whether you call it free labor or not.’ If the simple truth could at once break into the minds of all classes at the South, that the elevation of their common people to a higher plane of knowledge and skill would be a positive advantage to the whole, so that in each State there would be established such a system of schools as would bring the privileges of learning to the children of the humblest, then, indeed, could we count upon substantial growth.
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
Chapter
47
: freedmen's aid societies and an act of congress creating a Bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands
Chapter
55
:
first
appropriation by congress for the bureau; the reconstruction Act,
March
2
,
1867
; increase of educational work
Chapter
60
: opposition to Bureau and reconstruction work became personal; the
Congregational Church of
Washington
Chapter
62
: life in
Washington, D. C.
,
1866
to
1874
; assigned to duty in regular army as commander,
Department of the Columbia
Chapter
63
: in the
Northwest
, among the
Indians
; trip to
Alaska
; life in
Portland, Ore.
;
1874
to
1881
Chapter
64
: superintendent of the
United States military Academy
; commanding
Department of the Platte
,
Omaha, Neb.
Chapter
68
:
French
army maneuvers,
1884
; promotion to
Major General
,
United States army
,
San Francisco
1886
-
88
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